Throughout the world, oil or other cargo is transported from one port to another on vessels. The transportation of cargo on vessels is generally referred to as a voyage. Generally speaking, oil, for example, is typically lost during the loading, transporting, and discharging activities of a voyage. This cargo loss can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue. Decreasing cargo loss by a fraction of one percent may increase revenues significantly. Thus, the analysis of cargo loss and associated parameters is an important undertaking for companies to perform in order to identify problem areas, improve efficiency, and increase revenues.
Companies typically rely on inspectors to determine the amount of loss associated with each load, transport, and discharge during a voyage. Each time cargo is loaded or discharged from a vessel, the inspectors take a number of measurements on the vessel and at the port. The inspectors then use various equations to calculate and report the loss to the companies. The loss can be calculated for each load, transfer, discharge, segment or leg of a voyage, or for the entire voyage. A transfer may also be referred to as a ship-to-ship transfer or STS transfer. The calculation of various cargo losses associated with a voyage is often referred to as loss reconciliation.
Each loss report reported by an inspector typically refers to a single load, transfer, or discharge of cargo. The various loss reports can then be associated together to determine the loss reconciliation. The process of determining loss reconciliation can be very difficult because not all losses are reported or available and reported losses may be inconsistent or miscalculated.
If the loss associated with one load, transfer, or discharge is not reported, loss for the entire voyage may not be calculated. Thus, if just one loss report is unreported, or is not available, a company may be unable to determine the losses associated with the voyage. Furthermore, the company may be unable to further investigate the loss and take appropriate action to decrease loss and increase efficiency.
Inconsistent loss reports may be time consuming to analyze or simply unusable. As mentioned above, several measurements must be taken for each load, transfer, or discharge of cargo. If all the correct measurements are not made, or are inconsistent, a company may be unable to use the loss report to calculate the loss reconciliation. Without this valuable information, the company will be unable to implement procedures to reduce loss, improve efficiency, and increase revenue.
Due to the nature of calculating losses, correcting miscalculations can be time consuming and burdensome. Furthermore, miscalculations may not even be identified, leading to an erroneous loss reconciliation and costing a company millions of dollars.